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Comment Re:Statistics, statistics (Score 1) 401

by Deathanatos (#32884008) Attached to: Half of Windows 7 Machines Running 64-Bit Version
That's not the mantra - the mantra is "If it isn't bleeding out of its eye sockets, dismembered, and is dragging itself about the cubicles moaning like the half dead, half undead zombie piece of software that it is, then don't fix it." It's like telling some poor little kid they're going to the dentist to have their teeth pulled, and watching them kick and moan and scream the whole way. I find myself wondering "just what does IT do?" since it seems to take a planetary alignment just to get something upgraded from version 1.0.0 to version 1.0.1 when version 9.4.7 has been out the door for a decade. As a developer, I could make your computer address you in a British accent, play Mozart to make your baby smarter, and put the toilet seat down after each use, except that those features are only available in Windows XSP2k 128-bit, which we haven't upgraded to yet.
Math

Big Bang Could Be Recreated Inside a Metamaterial 113

Posted by kdawson from the never-met-a-material-i-didn't-like dept.
KentuckyFC writes "Metamaterials are substances with a permittivity and permeability that has been manipulated in a way that allows fine control over the behavior of light. They have famously been used to create an invisibility cloak that hides objects from view. Now Igor Smolyaninov, a physicist in the US, has calculated how metamaterials could be used for a much more profound demonstration: to reproduce the behavior of light in various kinds of spacetimes, in particular a (2+2) spacetime (one having two dimensions of space and two of time). His method is to show that there is formal mathematical analogy between the way metamaterials and spacetimes affect light. He goes on to show how a phase transition in a (2+2) spacetime leads to the creation of a (2+1) spacetime filled with photons, an event analogous to the Big Bang." Here are the abstract and the preprint (PDF).

Comment Re:Ideas want to be public (Score -1, Flamebait) 539

by Deathanatos (#28802063) Attached to: How To Vet Clever Ideas Without Giving Them Away?
Alright. This was modded +5 funny. Why?

Have we not ha-ha'd ourselves sore in our solitude "ha-ha we're so nerdy we can't get girls". This is not funny -- this is sad. A community that is sorely lacking in female involvement (most of my classes are 5% or less female to male), and we joke about it?

Now, I don't like to brag, but I'm going to defeat your odds. I know girls. I talk to them (gasp). I even have a girlfriend (careful, you're near the edge of the chair there). She's a liberal arts major. (Put the pitchforks and torches down, there's no need) Some of my "geeky" friends have even asked on multiple occaisions how I know so many girls. I despise this stereotype, simply because it never did and never will fit me. Yet I put up with it day in and day out.

Yet, there are (sadly, many) people out there who this does fit. And we find this funny. I don't even know what to say. Stereotypical Nerd: Bathe. Shave. Stand up straight. And diversify your interests. And no, I don't mean "I know threads, sockets, internationalization techniques, and 20 (computer) languages." No, no. Learn to play an instrument, go play a sport, or (if you really want a challenge) learn to dance. If you must talk tech to someone you know is non-technical, put it in English. Their eyes glazing over is a sign you're losing them... or they don't care.
Security

No-Fail Identity Theft – Live and In Person 214

Posted by timothy from the ma'am-I'm-going-to-need-to-ask-you-to-remove-that dept.
ancientribe writes "A researcher performing social-engineering exploits on behalf of several US banks and other firms in the past year has 'stolen' thousands of identities with a 100 percent success rate. He and his team have posed as investigators for the FDIC (among other things), and numerous times have literally been able to walk out the door with pilfered identities. The reason: organizations are typically so focused on online ID theft that they've forgotten how easy it is for a criminal to socially engineer his way into a bank branch or office and physically hack it."
Biotech

Newly Discovered Fungus Threatens World Wheat Crop 236

Posted by Zonk from the swarm-of-hungry-hungry-hippos-not-helping dept.
RickRussellTX writes "The UN reports that a variety of the rust fungus originally detected in Uganda in 1999 has already spread as far north as Iran, threatening wheat production across its range. The fungus infects wheat stems and affects 80% of wheat varieties, putting crops at risk and threatening the food sources for billions of people across central Asia. Although scientists believe they can develop resistant hybrids, the fungus is moving much faster than anticipated and resistant hybrids may still be years away. Meanwhile, national governments in the path of the fungus are telling folks that there is nothing to worry about."
Microsoft

Microsoft Says Vista Has the Fewest Flaws 548

Posted by samzenpus from the eye-of-the-beholder dept.
ancientribe writes "Microsoft issued a year-one security report on its Windows Vista operating system today, and it turns out Vista logged less than half the vulnerabilities than Windows XP did in its first year. According to the new Microsoft report, Vista also had fewer vulnerabilities in its first year than other OSes — including Red Hat rhel4ws, Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, and Apple Mac OS X 10.4 — did in their first years."

High School Robotics Competition Kicks Off 64

Posted by Zonk from the all-fun-till-they-nuke-the-colonies dept.
DeviceGuru writes "Some 35,000 high school students from over 1500 high schools in eight countries today began competing in the annual US FIRST student robotics contest. This year's competition, dubbed FIRST Overdrive, challenges the student teams to build semi-autonomous robots that will move 40-inch diameter inflatable balls around a playing field and score the most points. In this year's game, two alliances of three teams each work collaboratively to win each round. An animated simulation of the game (in several video formats) is available online."
Spam

Spammer Alan Ralsky Indicted 206

Posted by Soulskill from the dont-flee-to-nigeria dept.
Several users have written to tell us that notorious spammer Alan Ralsky has been indicted along with ten others on 41 counts of spam-related illegal activity. Ralsky has had trouble with the law in the past, and the current litany of charges includes mail and wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy, and violation of federal spamming laws. From the Detroit Free Press: "The 41-count indictment said Ralsky ... and others used unsolicited e-mail to pump up the price of largely worthless stock in Chinese companies and sold the stock reaping huge profits and leaving Internet subscribers who purchased it holding the bag. The operation also used illegal methods to maximize the amount of spam that could be sent while evading spam-blocking devices and tricked recipients into opening and acting on advertisements, prosecutors said."
Censorship

Posting Porn Link Judged Unlawful in Hong Kong 146

Posted by Zonk from the touchy-on-titilation dept.
hkxforce writes "Can you imagine posting a link to a website that would get you arrested by the police? In Hong Kong, a middle-age man has been heavily fined for posting a porn link in an adult discussion forum. 'A court in the Kwun Tong district of the city heard that Woo provided a hyperlinked message on the forum which, when clicked, would enable other forum users to access an overseas pornographic website showing the photos. But Internet Society chairman Charles Mok Nai-kwong said the court case raised several concerns. 'In this case, the court has given a new direction to the public concerning the responsibility of internet users,' he said. Mok added that he also believed the case could damage the freedom of information on the internet. 'This man posted a link on the internet which now becomes an act that constitutes the breaking of law, and my question is whether a link is being regarded as the 'obscene article,'' he said.'"
Music

Linux as A Musician's OS? 309

Posted by CmdrTaco from the but-there's-no-protools dept.
lazyeye writes "Keyboard Magazine has an in-depth article about the state of music production on Linux. While it does introduce Linux to the average musician, the article does get into some of the available music applications and music-oriented Linux distributions out there. From the opening paragraph 'You might think there's no way a free operating system written by volunteers could compete when it comes to music production. But in the past couple of years, all the tools you need to make music have arrived on Linux.'"
The Internet

A Succinct Definition of the Internet? 498

Posted by Cliff from the indefinable dept.
magnamous asks: "Ever since Senator Ted Stevens used the phrase 'series of tubes' to describe his understanding of the Internet, I've noticed several stories and comments referencing how silly that is. Although I agree that that description is rather silly, each time I've found myself trying to come up with a -succinct layman's definition- of what the Internet is, and I come up short. Wikipedia has a gargantuan page describing the Internet, and Google's definitions offer pretty good descriptions of what the Internet is in a functional sense (with some throwing in terms that the layman wouldn't understand, or take the time to understand), but not really a good description of what it -is- in the physical sense that I think Sen. Stevens was trying to get at. What are your suggestions for a succinct layman's definition of the Internet?"
Microsoft

Vista Taking a Nibble Out of Apple in OS Wars? 406

Posted by Zonk from the chomp-chomp-chomp dept.
PetManimal writes "Despite all of the positive buzz about the Mac operating system and the 'halo effect' of iPod sales, Mac OS X market share actually dropped last month, reports Computerworld: 'The share of PowerPC-based Macs fell ... from 4.29% in February to 3.94% in March. That dip was not fully offset by an increase in Intel-based Mac hardware, leading to a overall net decline in Mac share of 0.3%, to 6.08% in March.' Meanwhile, Vista is rising, the article says, with just over 2% of computers connected to the Internet using the new Windows OS. The figures are from a company called Net Applications, which collects its data from the browsers of visitors to its network of 40,000+ Web sites."

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